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John Thrasher’s Pro-life Credentials Questionable at Best

As part of our ongoing examination of District 8 candidates, we have recently investigated John Thrasher’s position on abortion. Although John Thrasher has always talked about being firmly pro-life, he has punted on every opportunity to restrict abortion as Florida House Speaker.

In 2001, committees in the Florida House approved legislation which would have restricted partial-birth abortion and another which would have required 48-hour parental notification for minors. Unfortunately, Thrasher prevented both bills from moving to the floor to be approved by the Florida House.

At the time, Thrasher’s justification was a desire “to spare lawmakers the ordeal of wrangling with abortion issues this year.” Unfortunately, this is not the only example of Thrasher passing the buck when it comes time to effect real change, as he did on everything from school prayer to ethics reform to reigning in the tax code. Thrasher continually backed away from the fight.

For some people, it may be enough to hear politicians saying the right things about the issues near and dear to their hearts. However, there are likely many more who want to see their elected officials stand up and put action behind their words.